Nafissa Insebayeva is a Research Fellow and Academic Associate with the Innovation and Education Programme at UNU-IAS.
Dr. Nafissa Insebayeva's work focuses on action-oriented education for sustainable development and climate change education. It supports the development of learners’ knowledge, values, skills and agency, contributes to strengthening educator capacity, and aims to inform policy and practice for more just and sustainable societies. She is particularly interested in learner-centred, community-engaged and context-responsive approaches that reflect the lived realities of learners and communities and connect education with practical action, especially in the context of Global South.
Dr. Insebayeva received her doctoral degree from the University of Tsukuba, Japan, as a MEXT Scholar. Prior to joining UNU-IAS, she was a research associate at the Nippon Foundation Central Asia — Japan Human Resource Development Project (NipCA) at the University of Tsukuba and a visiting research fellow at the George Washington University (GW) Institute for European, Russian and Eurasian Studies (IERES). She is the author of Modernity, Development and Decolonization of Knowledge in Central Asia (Palgrave Macmillan).
Research Interests
Climate change education (CCE)
Climate justice and equity
Community engagement
Education for sustainable development (ESD)
Global North and Global South
Learner agency and youth leadership
